Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c8.s3.2

c8.s3.2

Bali was a Daitya or Dānava (or, as we should say, Titan) king, who by the power of his penance defeated Indra, humbled the gods, and dominated the three worlds. The gods appealed for help to Vishnu, who assumed the Vāmana or Dwarf incarnation, and appearing before Bali as a Brāhman dwarf, begged for only three paces of ground. This being granted, he assumed his godlike dimensions, and with two strides having covered heaven and earth, there being no place for the third, planted his foot on Bali's head, and forced him down to Pātāla (the nether world and abode of the Nāgas or serpents), which on account of certain virtues was left in his possession. The germ of this legend is found in the Ṛig-vēda, where Vishnu is represented as taking three strides over heaven, earth, and the lower regions—typifying perhaps the rising, culmination, and setting of the sun.